Section 1: A: And later...well, first the White House door
was open to me anytime. Then, later, when he
moved down to Missouri to his home, where he
always wanted to finish up, any time that I
got into the Kansas City area, I was welcome
to come out there. He would just sit there at
his desk and we would talk about the plowing
match and a lot of other things. It was
really fun. --
Section 2: Q: Will you talk a little bit about covering
Khrushchev's visit to Iowa?
A: Well, I am not really the man to talk
about the Khrushchev visit because I was not
the luckiest guy in the word on that. At the
same time, the very same time that Khrushchev
was going to go to Coon Rapids, the national
Farm Progress Show was over here in eastern
Iowa somewhere. So, for two days, when he
first came in, well, yes, I went to the
dinner in Des Moines. I heard him and I then
rushed back to eastern Iowa to do my thing
because I was locked in. But, the last day,
the last day I was back in Des Moines and I
knew that Khrushchev was being invited to the
Booking (??) Packing Company to see a packing
company at work. So, I told one of my
assistants I would like to go out and see
what was going on. Because I had not been to
Coon Rapids. I had not been in on the real
thing. Got out there and, along with
thousands of other people, was there just
strictly as a by-stander. But I did work
myself up to the front line, it had been
fenced off, where Khrushchev was to come out
and look at cattle or something. Anyway, he
was to come out there. And they had a ring of
about twenty Booking Packing Company
employees, all wearing their smock. Booking
Packing Company. All wearing their smock. And
the guy right in front of me had been waiting
for twenty minutes. It was pretty warm. He
had been waiting for twenty minutes and I
heard him say, "The hell with it." He took
off the smock, dropped it on the floor. I was
able to get through or over or under the
fence, whatever it was. I went there, picked
up the smock, and put it on. Now, I am one of
the twenty Booking Packing Company employees.
Khrushchev comes out and he wants to see the
cattle. The cattle were, of course, stationed
nearby. So, us guards all took him over to
the cattle. And, at that point, I got out of
the line and I got right behind him because I
wanted to hear what was going on. Of course,
it was all translation, but I got to hear
what was going on. From there, and that was
interesting...I suppose the other guards
wondered what I was doing there. Nobody
pulled me out, though. The Secret Service, or
whatever security they had, didn't get me.
Didn't catch me. It was lucky. Then we went
into the room and Lodge, Ambassador [Henry
Cabot] Lodge, that is who was his escort, was
in there, and they were going to serve
everybody whatever you wanted to eat,
including hot dogs. Khrushchev, being the
crude guy that he is, picked up one of the
hot dogs in the sandwich. Ambassador Lodge,
you know what his background was. I don't
think he ever had a hot dog in his life. He
was standing there and Khrushchev took this
hot dog and said, "Have a bite." Poor
Ambassador Lodge took a bite, but not
willingly. Not happily. [laughs] Not happily.
I think that is one of the funniest things I
have ever seen in my life. I don't if that is
what you wanted, but that is what happened. --
Section 3:
Q: You also went to Vietnam for a little
while. Could you talk a little bit about
that? And could you also talk about the
technology you used in getting stories from
Vietnam back here to Des Moines?
A: I would be glad to talk about that. First
of all, you must understand that I was not
chosen by the Army to be a war correspondent
in Vietnam. But, I was chosen by the United
Nations to make a tour, a world tour, to all
kinds of countries, and I went to a lot of
them, to talk with some of their farm leaders
and get, as an ordinary broadcaster, no
connection with the United Nations or
anything like that, because they wanted to
find out what was in the minds of some of
these people. And I, as a broadcaster,
presumably, would try to find out. And I did
find out. And I found out some real...I found
out a couple of real wash-outs. They had no
business whatsoever representing our country,
or any other country for that matter, or
being involved with the United Nations. They
were just misfits. I found that out. I think
it was at least two, maybe three, in the
different countries I was in. And others were
the greatest in the world. Just the greatest
in the world.
But, in connection with this, because I had
been a war correspondent, I was able to apply
again, saying I would be in Vietnam and I
would like to be with the troops. And, lo and
behold, when I got over that far, I did get
to Vietnam, and I suddenly became a
full-fledged war correspondent. But I learned
some hard lessons. Number One - was the Army
wasn't really as happy as they might be about
war correspondents. And here is this
character from Des Moines, Iowa - "What the
heck? What is he doing here, anyway? What
will he accomplish? This is no good. We don't
want them anyway and now we get this guy."
So, instead of giving me...letting me rent or
buy or steal a kind of a uniform that you
would need for that hot country, they gave me
a winter uniform that we would have worn in
Europe during the winter. I knew it. I could
see that I was in trouble right away. Right
away. But I was going to go out. So, I went
out. Because my purpose was to talk with the
troops. Especially if I could find Iowa
troops. And I did find my share of Iowa
troops. But I went out and the very first
thing I did was get up to some Iowa fellows
and say, "I can't live this way. I can't
survive this way. Can you get me something
that I can wear?" And they did. They had no
trouble. They scrounged something from this
guy and they scrounged something from this
guy and so forth. Pretty soon, I had clothes
that made me fit in with those guys and let
me survive. That was one of the things.
I can go a lot further on Vietnam if you want
me to, because it took me, I don't know now
many days it was, but it was less than a
week, to find out we were never going to win
that war. That we were in the wrong war. We
were not going to win it and we might as well
realize it. By that time, some of our top
correspondents had been saying this, but I
didn't believe this. After all, we Americans
have got to take care of this little old
country. But, believe me, that little old
country was a much more formidable enemy than
you realized. In the daytime, the guy was
wearing his conical hat and his black
pajama-like clothes, with his hoe out here,
hoeing away on some weeds. It would be the
same guy, that same night, would kill you if
he could find you. That is what happened.
And, fortunately, I became aware of that.
Other people were, too, and other people told
me so. So, it was obvious to me. Then when I
got with the troops, it was the toughest job
in the world because there would be a
lieutenant or some officer up the line, it
might just be a master sergeant, who would
tell the troops, "Now, don't you tell this
guy anything he shouldn't know." What will
the troops do? They won't tell you anything.
They will tell you where they live and how
long they have been there and how they are
anxious to get home. That they got a letter
from their girlfriend. But, they won't tell
you anything you want to know. Until you get
to some officers. And you get to some
officers from Iowa who knew what I was. And I
found out. I didn't have much question what
the situation was. I wasn't there very long,
less than two months, but it was tough. And
the broadcasting, of course, they did...if
they could, they would black pencil
everything out. I still was able to get
broadcasts through. In fact, I got quite a
few broadcasts through. There was nothing
wrong with our equipment. There was nothing
wrong with our transmitters. It was the
censors. That's the guy that you had to look
out for.
Obviously, you couldn't...one day, for
instance, I learned from somebody that there
had been a pretty rough go in a little
village not far away. Not far from the
regular road where I would go. So, I demanded
to go to that village. I got there. It was a
little like Dachau. It was terrible to see
those people lying there, slaughtered. But,
that was Vietnam. If you are a war
correspondent, you have got to get from one
place to another. How do you get from one
place to another if they don't want you to
get to that place? I was able to sneak unto
the C-54's, this is a huge plane that carries
a couple of hundred troops, and I was able to
get in there with them and sit right with the
other guy. The other guy would have his back
up to here and I would have my back up to
another guy's legs there. That's how I got to
travel. That's how I got around. And,
occasionally, of course, I would find an Iowa
correspondent with a jeep and we would get
out. The worst thing, however, was that some
people found out that I was there and they
wanted me to come to their place. Which I
would have loved to have done. But the Army
had me go to some other place. That was
cruel. That was tough. It was no way to be a
war correspondent. I was terribly
disillusioned.
And when I got back home here, and I told
what I felt was the truth, there were some
military people that were pretty bitter about
me. I did not say things on the air that I
wanted to say. But I would talk with people
and they found that out. I will tell you,
there were some of them that really wanted to
get me. Maybe they didn't know any better.
They were stationed here and hadn't ever been
over there and seen for themselves, because
if they had seen for themselves I think they
would have said, "OK, let him go." Because,
you know, it was only a matter of two or
three years later and everybody realized it.
That was Vietnam. --
Section 4: Q: Can you talk about some of the ways
technology has changed over the years in
radio?
A: Well, Ms. Davis, I can tell you a little
about what I experienced, but I am not an
engineer. I don't know even today why the
waves come out of tower and go a thousand
miles and you can understand what those waves
are doing. This is beyond me. I can tell you,
that when I started out, I had a microphone,
it was about that big. I still have it. WHO
is on it. It was about that big. There are
some pictures, maybe even in one of my books,
that show me at that microphone. Then, of
course, they got down and down and down. Look
at what we have got now. That, in itself, is
so different. But, how about the remotes?
Doing the remotes. When I first started out
doing remotes, that was before the war,
before World War II. We had a recorder. It
weighed sixty pounds. It was about that long
and about that high. And, fortunately, I was
young enough yet to be able to carry it. And,
it had, instead of tape, it had wire on it.
Then when we got in the war, it wasn't much
better except you had a sergeant with you who
carried that stuff. I remember one day in
particular, I am speaking about the 1940's, a
long time ago, we still didn't have what we
have now by any stretch of the imagination,
but I remember one time I had lined up a
group of soldiers for a mail call. In other
words, the postman, whatever office he held,
I will call him a postman, he would read the
names of the troops and where they were from,
and the troops would be out there, hundreds
of them, and they would come up. One fellow
comes up and he gets his letter from home,
from his girlfriend, probably, and he starts
out reading the letter like this, and walking
slowly with his big boots, you know. At that
point, the wire came off the wind-up spool,
went down on the ground, and this guy caught
this wire in his foot. He kept walking
slowly, reading this letter. And you won't
believe this, but the engineers caught it, of
course, stopped everything, stopped him, he
kept on reading his letter while he got rid
of the wire, rewound the spool and did not
lose a word. That is what you call a miracle.
That is with a wire recorder. I don't know if
you have ever heard of them, but that is what
we used to use. Wire recorders. And they were
heavy. The spools were about like that. The
wire was real thin. You could probably do
about thirty minutes on a wire. I don't know.
But it worked. And I can tell you that much.
And, of course, I can tell you that as time
went on, we got into lots of different
things. The TV cameras at the beginning were
very different than the TV cameras of today.
But I still notice that when they are out on
remotes, they carrying pretty sizeable
things. Pretty sizeable cameras. They are
wonderful and they do wonderful work. But I
think to myself, "Boy, I am glad I am not one
of those guys."
Everything, of course, is improved. The
engineers. I have nothing but respect for
engineers, be they TV, be they radio, be they
railroad, be they anything else. Be they farm
engineers. They must have some great minds.
They must go far beyond where I could ever
have gone. --
Section 5: Q: Mr. Plambeck, did you ever work
with Ronald Reagan at WHO?
A: Yes.
Q: Talk about our former
president.
A: I will be glad to. Want me to speak to
you?
Q: Sure.
A: Ronald Reagan, better known as "Dutch"
Reagan when I first knew him, was formerly
with WOC at Davenport, Iowa. That is where he
got his start. He was an Illinois man, but in
radio, he was with WOC which was a sister
station of WHO. He was at WOC several years.
I heard him. I was listening to him. He was a
sports fan, a real good one, I thought. So,
they brought him to WHO. They brought him to
WHO about 1934. I didn't get to WHO until
1946, so he was already a very well
established person as a sports director. But,
occasionally, he would have to substitute for
announcing and he would have to double up as
an announcer and introduce news people. Even
farm people like me. I distinctly remember
when he had to introduce me. I don't think it
thrilled him, particularly, but he was always
very nice, very friendly. Everybody liked
him. He, as a sports director, of course, he
had to go out to California, there is an
island out there, I can't think of the name
of it right now, but that is where the Cubs
trained. So, good old Ronnie, Dutch, went out
there every year in the spring training
season and had a great time. He would come
back and, boy, was he well liked. I liked
him. Everybody liked him. He was a bit
conceited at times and he had a few favorite
places that he liked to go to. Night club
type of places. I think he had a few favorite
ladies that he liked to see once in a while.
And he had a love for horses. He liked to
ride horses out at the Fort Des Moines
facility where they still had horses. I would
go out and watch him perform because I knew
him as a radio man. Well, I was there about a
year, not quite a year, and when he went out
to report on the Cubs spring training, he had
a friend in the Hollywood area. Her name was
Elaine. She invited him to come to Hollywood
and said, "Why don't you take a screen test?"
He did and he impressed somebody. He came
back to us as a sports director, started in
again. Then one day he gets this cable or
call or telegram or whatever it was, "We want
you in Hollywood." That was a day. I don't
think anybody can ever forget that day. And
then, as time went on, of course, we had the
parties for him and we had all this sort of
stuff. He didn't leave right away. He stayed
a while. Unlike me, when I had a chance to go
to Washington, I had to go pretty fast. He
enjoyed everything. On the day that he left,
one of our offices had a desk in it where he
spent part of his time. I still remember him
sitting on that desk, holding court, and
everybody at the radio station and a lot of
other people come in and telling him, "We are
going to miss you, but good luck to you." It
was something. It was really something.
Then he got to Hollywood and I thought that
was the last I would see of him. But that is
not true. He was my friend from early days on
because we worked together. And, I would see
him in Hollywood whenever I would get out to
California. He would show me around. Just a
nice guy. Then he got to be governor of
California. I didn't have much to do with him
at that period. Then he got to be president.
And, again, I had the opportunity to come to
the White House and spend some time with him.
He was beginning to be a little bit more
aloof as president, which you would certainly
expect. But now, that I think of those last
years that he was president, I can't help but
feel something was beginning, something was
beginning, there. I didn't realize it at that
time, but now I do think about that thing.
Maybe I was wrong. But, yes, I had good
relations with President Reagan, formerly
Ronald Reagan, better known as Dutch Reagan,
because that is the way we all knew him. We
didn't even know his first name for a long
time. --
Section 6: Q: Could you talk a little bit about some of
the stories, either for editorial reasons or
commercial reasons, you were not able to do?
Some of the sacred cows?
A: Well, of course, if you knew something
about something that was not quite right in
connection with the radio station, you
obviously were pretty sure not to say
anything about that. And there were things
like that. If you knew somebody that was in
the public eye that had been a little
careless or had done something he shouldn't
have done, I was not in a position to talk
about that. I might talk with you about it as
a private citizen, but I wouldn't be on the
air. We did not do, as farm broadcasters nor
as newscasters, very much editorializing in
my period when I was on radio. You must
remember I went to Washington in 1970 to
become assistant to the Secretary of
Agriculture and I am thinking of my radio
days largely, my WHO days largely, as before
that. Now, since that, I have, I believe I
even mentioned it earlier, I did an editorial
a week ago on WMT about the mega-hog farms
and what they are doing to our rural
communities. It is different now. I think if
I were WHO farm director now, they would let
me editorialize and there would be a lot of
things I could editorialize on. But it wasn't
true in those days. There were people who did
it, but they were not like me with a job to
hold down. I am sorry I can't answer your
question more specifically.
Q: Did you have to wear white gloves when you
dealt with advertisers? Did you have to
sanitize some of your views?
A: I am glad you asked that question. No, the
truth is, when I dealt with advertisers, I
always made it a point to be myself and to
tell them where I stood. People would come to
me. I remember Mr. Couney (??) coming from
Kansas City saying, "We hear that you are on
DeKalb. Why can't you be on Consumer
Cooperated with us?" And I was, pretty soon
thereafter. But they would come to me because
WHO was a powerful station and it had quite a
hold on a lot of people. It probably still
does. I won't get into that, because it is
not for me to say. But, in those days, one
time, one time, our sales manager, Harold
Fulton, asked me to go to New York to speak
to the advertising club of New York City
where there probably fifty, I don't remember,
I didn't count them, of the top executives in
advertising. And I spoke to them. [remaining transcript not available]
--
Section 7: [beginning of transcript not available]
A: I lost five broadcasts out of ninety. I
don't think I made quite a hundred, but it
was awful close. I think it was ninety-seven.
I lost five broadcasts. Now that is a pretty
good record of getting to New York. Then,
RCA, from Europe or from wherever we were,
would transmit this to New York. New York
would transmit it to Des Moines and to other
stations. We had, I think there were twelve
stations that WHO put together as a sort of a
network. Iowa, mainly Iowa. Where a guy like
me or a guy like Jack Shelley would be heard.
That is how that worked. We were given times
and you can be pretty sure we would try to
meet those times. They were pretty precious.
If we weren't there, they wouldn't like it
and we wouldn't get another time. Does that
answer your question?
Q: Yes. Thank you.
--
Section 8: Q: Two questions and then we are through. You
worked very hard as a journalist. And you
have earned your reputation as a great farm
reporter and as a war correspondent. My
question is, why did you love your work so
much? What did it have for you that it made
you professionally complete?
A: I think I have to answer that in a lot of
ways. Number one, you have got to understand
that I was about as low down on the totem
pole as you can be when I was a boy. I was
not even a hired man. I was a hired boy. And
I didn't get much money. I got four acres of
land on which I could plant corn or whatever
I wanted to. Instead of that, I planted
vegetables. Tomatoes, sweet corn, pickles.
Hard work. But I got, my uncle gave me a
solid, rubber-tired truck. He was a cement
contractor. He gave me that truck for free. I
used that truck to deliver produce to three
areas in the city of Davenport every week
during the growing season. And I would make
as much as one hundred dollars in one day.
One hundred dollars. Pickles were
seventy-five cents to a dollar a peck. My
sisters were working for me. My cousins were
working for me. My neighbor boys were working
for me. On the vegetable plot.
[mic lost briefly]
Q: You have got pickles at seventy-five cents
a peck. You made a hundred dollars a day.
Very, very rare.
A: Well, that wasn't every day. But I did
actually make it. In other words, instead of
being a hired man for twenty or twenty-five
dollars a month, which my dad would have
given me, he gave me four acres of land. And,
instead of that, I got enough together that
would have enabled me to go to college.
Because I always wanted to go to college.
But, then came the bank failure and that
went, too. I started over again. I told you
that one reason why I love my work was
because of that low beginning that I had.
Another reason, and you have probably guessed
it, was ego. All of a sudden, I am somebody
instead of just a hired man on a farm. I am
somebody. People knew my name. People had me
come to talk to them. People had me write
stories about them. That does something for a
person's ego. But, beyond that, I also felt
this was an opportunity that I was given. I
had a rare opportunity to do something for
agriculture. For the field, really the only
field I knew anything about. Because that was
my background. But they needed all the help
they could get and I was one who could help
through my efforts.
As far as journalism is concerned, I don't
know whether you can really call me a
journalist. I did take every journalism
course I was able to at Iowa State. Some of
them non-collegiate. And later on, the Dean
of Agriculture called me in and he said,
"Herb, we have looked at what you are doing.
You are working hard. You are getting
ninety-eights. (That was when grading was
numerical.) You are getting ninety-sixes and
ninety-eights. You should be a collegiate
student." I said, "I want to be, but you
won't let me." He said, "We will see to it
that you get to be a collegiate student."
Well, then I did get to be a collegiate
student. I became a state college debater at
Iowa State. I became active in the
agricultural/agronomy. I became a Cossack
rider, one of the daredevils that rode horses
in circus performances. I loved it. Every
minute. Besides that, I was taking
psychology. I took every course in psychology
they had, because I was allowed to take
electives. My electives would be in the line
of journalism, in the line of writing, in the
line of speaking, in the line of psychology.
I couldn't have passed a simple question you
would ask on some phase of arithmetic,
because as far as I got was the eighth grade
of arithmetic. I never had anything in high
school. I would have flunked. But then, I got
an offer to get a job when I was in the
beginning of my senior year. The doctors, and
I am speaking about old times, the doctors
that had put in eight years weren't getting
jobs. But I had an offer. So, that is when I
left. That explains why I never tried to
finish college. I doubt if I could have even
if I stayed there ten more years. --
Section 9: Q: The last question I have got is, what
advice do you have for young people who want
to get into the field of journalism? Of
radio? Of being communicators? What do they
have to have?
A: Well, first of all, if you can get an
education in college, university, about this
subject, take it because it is bound to be
helpful to you. But secondly, make up your
mind that this is not going to be an easy
job. If you really want to do it, if you
really want to go all the way, which is going
to take a lot of researching, checking,
re-checking, re-writing, and everything else,
and this takes time. When I tell you I have
known many a twelve hour day or longer, that
doesn't appeal to some people anymore
nowadays. But they ought to know that. They
should be prepared. They also should be
willing to like people. They should be the
type of people that do like people. That want
to shake hands with people. Want to know
something about the other guy. Not just about
themselves or about somebody else that they
know that is way up there. They want to know
about those people themselves. I think that
is pretty essential. And, early on, I was
taught that when you shake hands, mean it. So
it means something to the person. Well, I
will tell you, I have met all kinds of people
who haven't learned that lesson. One of them
was King George. King George, I shook hands
with him and it was like a dishrag. Of
course, he had shaken a lot of other hands
and he probably wasn't very interested in my
hand, but it was pathetic. Absolutely
pathetic. And, then I turned to the Queen and
she was much more realistic. Then I got to
the princesses and well, that was more fun
that it was anything else. But, I think you
have got to like people or, at least, that
should be a part of the equation.
I have already tried to say training, being
prepared. But you have got to like people.
And you have got to like to work. You have
got to be willing to put in long hours and be
prepared, if they say you are going to have
to go to Clinton, Iowa, tomorrow, well, you
are going to have to tell your wife or your
girlfriend, "I have got to go to Clinton
tomorrow."
Q: I am going to break my resolve and ask you
one more question. Talk about the Register,
the Des Moines Register, and how the
Register's impact on the state has changed.
The Register truly used to be the paper of
Iowa. The voice of Iowa.
A: "The paper that Iowa depends upon," was
their slogan for years.
Q: You are exactly right.
A: Well, now you are asking me a question
about some other enterprise or some other
business. I will answer it but I hope you
won't hold it against me. I am a very devout
reader of the Register. There is one in one
of these packets or in the car. Yesterday's
Register, which I haven't had much chance to
read. I like the Register people. Frankly, I
worshiped J. S. Russell, who was the first
farm editor and all of the others since. Don
Muhm and now Jerry Perkins (??). We are good
friends. We are close. I worked together with
a lot of Register people. Now, some of them
were very aggressive and they kind of pushed
me out of the way if they could because they
didn't want me to have the same story they
were getting. I can understand that. Others
were just as cooperative as could be. The
Register, at one time, was the paper that
Iowa depends upon. Today, I don't believe
that is quite the case anymore. For one
thing, there used to be a farm section. It
was page one of the farm section. Today, the
farm section is page three and four. I called
Dean Ryerson (??), Mr. Ryerson, the editor,
and I said, "Mr. Ryerson, I am sorry to see
the farm page go to page three and four."
Well," he said, "I can understand how you
feel, but we just felt there was no other
way. We had to do it that way." They don't
reach a lot of parts of the state anymore.
They probably reach here, of course, but
there are a lot of places they don't reach.
There are a lot of farm families that don't
get the Register anymore. Sometimes when I
speak about this subject, they don't even
know what I am talking about. A newspaper
that is printed in Des Moines.
It has made a lot of changes. They know what
they are doing, I presume. I don't know what
it has done to their circulation. Probably
they have picked up more people locally and
in the central area. I don't believe they can
make the claim anymore that is it the
newspaper that Iowa depends upon, because it
just isn't going to everyplace. I think they
have got marvelous writers. Some of them are
kind of different. Some of their columnists
are not exactly using what I would use, but
they are doing it very successfully and I
read it. I am quite an editorial page reader
and I write letters to the editor. I write
them once in a while, and they use them. I
had one in just a week ago, or less than a
week ago, to the editor. So, I am a Register
fan, but I don't necessarily like to see what
they have done in some things.
Q: Thank you very, very much.
